The present invention relates generally to mobile telephone technology, and more specifically to using mobile telephones or mobile devices for navigation, tracking, both, or the like. Given the rapid development of devices that will benefit from this technology, the invention is best described as providing navigation tools to any portable communications device that communicates via a wireless data network.
The arts of navigation/tracking and portable communications devices emerged from separate origins. However, the increased sophistication of portable communications devices provides a potential opportunity to synergistically converge navigation/tracking technology and portable communications devices technology.
Preexisting user navigation and tracking services do not offer a way for their users to broadcast their current fixed or changing location to a central location so that other mobile users may find them and get dynamic directions to their current location. For example, other user navigation and tracking services such as Google local located at URL http://www.google.com/gmm/tour.html and TeleNav located at URL http://www.telenav.com appear to simply provide an unchanging static map to a predetermined location whose position is fixed. This may not be useful to two or more mobile users attempting to locate each other, i.e., the prior systems cannot assist users with navigational hints by pinpointing where they could converge to meet.
Also, since other user navigation and tracking services do not regularly communicate the portable communication device's location to a database, a user or merchant cannot easily update and share their points of interest or items for sale and their current location with other users or potential customers. Further, other user navigation and tracking services require at least one of the users or merchants to remain at a fixed location until the other user can converge on their location.
Prior publications in this field show attempts to bring navigational data to a user at a remote location. U.S. Pat. No. 6,615,131 (Rennard 2003), for example, shows a cell phone with certain limited navigation features. In particular, a cell phone user can upload a current geographical position to a server that is equipped to download that position to other specified cellular system users. The patent, however, is silent in regard to the scope of navigational data that can be downloaded and offers no disclosure to show updated location plots for users traveling along various routes.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,697,103 (Fernandez 2004) integrates GPS data with remote monitoring systems. Fernandez uses a database to store a tracked object's positional movement and transmitting a positional indicator for that object to a remote monitor. Fernandez implements software to modify the object representation of each movement to remotely indicate that the location data in the database has been updated. Although Fernandez does transmit updated location data from a tracked object to a database and then to a remote display, Fernandez does not anticipate displaying the tracking data on a portable communications device. Fernandez only discloses transmitting the updated location information over the Internet.
One other prior publication of interest is U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/774,034, published as document number 20040157624 (Hrastar 2004). The Hrastar '034 patent application shows a method of tracking a wireless device that has a unique identifier in a data store. Hrastar relies upon sensors spaced throughout the subject geography, however, to track the wireless device. The sensors, of course, cannot provide global coverage and hinder accurate updates in real time.
It would be advantageous to provide improved navigation and tracking capabilities that allow users to more effectively track other users, points of interest, or merchants and would allow a user to navigate with respect to same. As such, new and improved applications for portable communications devices could be enabled. Note that this Background of the Invention is provided merely for explanatory purposes, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention as defined by the attached claims in any way.